Daily Food & Ag Digest
Every day, the staff of the Genetic Literacy Project scours the Web for stories on a range of agricultural and food issues, including the GMO debate, conventional and organic farming, regulations, new breeding technologies and sustainability. We publish excerpts of those stories and encourage our readers to visit the original publications for the complete stories.
CRISPR crops: Can carbon-sucking gene edited crops help address climate change? Jennifer Doudna thinks so
The Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI), a research group in Berkeley, California, founded by CRISPR co-inventor Jennifer Doudna, has announced a new program to ...
How mushroom waste can be turned into eco-friendly styrofoam packaging replacements
Styrofoam has become ubiquitous in the modern age of consumerism, and even synonymous with packaging. But containing toxic chemicals such ...
Viewpoint: ‘Double advantage’ — Why organic farmers should be allowed to grow GMO seeds to pursue sustainability objectives
In recent years, with the expectation of quality life, human beings have turned to organic foods with 30-40% less product ...
Video: As Ghana appears poised to approve its first GMO — a insect-resistant cowpea — here’s the story of the country’s science journey
Ghana is on the verge of approving its first genetically modified crop, the pod borer resistant (PBR) cowpea. In this ...
With August decision date to approve GMO insect-resistant cowpea in sight, Ghanaian scientist stresses role in reducing chemical usage and ensuring food security
Ghana’s food security will receive a good boost if the country’s first genetically modified crop gets environmental release approval from ...
Appeal to nature: Daily Kos Logical Fallacies Bootcamp dismantles myth that natural products are automatically better for us
The argument is a simple one, and one that you’ve probably come across before. It runs along these lines: X is ...
Viewpoint: Innovation vs. ideology — How the US and Europe differ on the goal of ‘green’, sustainable farming
With its new Farm to Fork (F2F) strategy, the EU plans to expand organic farming, an approach that rules out ...
Not getting enough sunlight? Vitamin D-boosted gene edited tomatoes could improve nutrition for a billion nutrient-deficient people
Tomatoes (yes, they’re technically a fruit, though the U.S. government considers them a vegetable for “nutritional and culinary purposes”) can be genetically-engineered to ...
Bayer’s appeal to set aside suits alleging it‘s liable for deaths linked to glyphosate weedkiller rejected by US Supreme Court
The U.S. Supreme Court on [June 21] rejected Bayer AG's bid to dismiss legal claims by customers who contend its ...
Viewpoint: USDA poised to spend $300 million to help farmers transition to organic to shore up supply chains. Here’s why that’s a bad idea for food security and the environment
[The USDA] plans on spending $300 million to help farmers transition to organic production. What?? USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack defended ...
Public comments reveal overwhelming support for GM cowpea in Ghana
Public comments submitted to Ghana’s National Biosafety Authority (NBA) show overwhelming support for approving pod borer-resistant cowpea, the country’s first ...
With climate change accelerating spread of aflatoxin mold in Midwest corn, farmers look to genetically modified seeds as key solution
Climate change is expanding the reach of aflatoxin, a chemical produced by a gray-green mold that infects corn crops and ...
Federal appeals court rules EPA must reconsider safety of Bayer’s glyphosate weedkiller under Endangered Species Act
A federal appeals court on [June 17] rejected a Trump administration finding that the active ingredient in the weed killer ...
Lab-grown seafood: Here’s a taste test and roadmap of its path to approval
Wildtype, a cell-cultured meat company pioneering the field of cellular agriculture to grow cuts of seafood, without fishing or fish ...
Viewpoint: Green technology-rejectionist Vandana Shiva at center of Sri Lanka’s disastrous organic farming embrace and crop protection chemical rejection
The unprecedented economic crisis in Sri Lanka has been doing the rounds across mainstream media, academia, policy circles as well ...
Viewpoint: ‘Defenders of modern agriculture should vehemently push back against the notion that today’s food model undermines bee health or human health’
Since the introduction of neonicotinoid insecticides – the pesticides blamed for bee death – in the mid-90s, bee populations have ...
African scientists launch biodiversity genomics revolution
Though Africa is home to the second largest collection of biodiversity on earth, many of its unique plants, animals and ...
Eating poultry helps cut greenhouse gas impact of beef. Now a start-up is increasing production – by grinding up chicken bones
Fifty years ago, poultry made up about 15 percent of all the world’s meat. Now that fraction has ballooned to ...
Video: ‘Weapon in our armory’ — Developer of Golden Rice says genetically modified crops are essential for food security as global warming makes crops more vulnerable
Nafees Meah, regional representative for South Asia for the Philippines-based International Rice Research Institute, calls genetically modified crops "a weapon ...
As Ukrainian conflict continues to disrupt global food imports, Kenya gives okay for farmers to import GMO cotton seed, a first for the country
At least 10 manufacturers including Bidco East Africa have been allowed to import 28 million kilogrammes of genetically modified organism ...
Could cultivated, lab-grown meat put a dent in global warming?
What if there was a way to eat meat without farming and killing billions of animals per year, contributing to the climate ...
‘Milk without cows’? What consumers need to know about precision fermentation
“There is a real revolution going on here,” Jim Mellon, a biotech investor and the author of Moo’s Law: An ...
How seed gene banks are preserving biodiversity and providing a hedge against climate change
“It’s a tool against extinction — not just biological extinction but, also, the extinction of knowledge.” The facility at Palmira ...
Viewpoint: Food security crisis underscores why it’s time to get over wrong-headed fears over genetically modified wheat, says North Dakota state senator
Three decades ago, a good year meant 90 bushels of corn and 25 bushels of soybeans an acre. This season ...
Bayer awaits Supreme Court decision on whether to overturn Monsanto Roundup glyphosate cancer verdicts as it wins third defense case in a row
Bayer won a jury verdict over Roundup on [June 9], the third defense win in a row over Monsanto’s pesticide ...
Lab meat revolution? Promise and perils of cellular agriculture
If chicken nuggets are emblematic of contemporary capitalism, then they are ripe for disruption. Perhaps their most promising challenger is ...
The gene editing solution that could save one million African (cash) cows a year
All around the world millions of people feed their families and make their living from cows, whose meat and milk ...
